Fri 18 March 2022:
Hundreds of bulletproof vests were stolen from an NGO in New York after officers donated them, police and the organization said Thursday. The vests were destined for Ukraine as the country fights a Russian military campaign.
The theft occurred at the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) offices, where officers arrived Wednesday and discovered “approximately 400 bulletproof vests were removed from the location,” according to NYPD spokeswoman Lieutenant Jessica McRorie.
“There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing,” she added.
A spokesperson for UCCA said a smaller number of vests, about 300, were missing from the group’s Manhattan location. “We don’t know… why, how” the robbery occurred, or who would have committed it, the spokesperson told AFP.
The secondhand vests were donated by the police on Long Island, New York and were to be sent to aid workers who would deliver them by truck throughout Ukraine, the group said.
UCCA says it oversees dozens of Ukrainian-American groups in the United States, which is home to an estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million people of Ukrainian origin.
Since the Russian military operation began three weeks ago, many US organisations have been mobilising to help raise funds and collect and ship food, clothing, toiletries, medicine and non-lethal light military equipment such as body armour and helmets to the Eastern European nation.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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